Punjab & Haryana HC Enhances Compensation For Accidental Death Of 'Brilliant' Class 3 Student, Calculates Notional Income As 30K Per Annum

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has observed that the notional income of a brilliant student, studying in 3rd grade who met with an accident in 2007, will be Rs.30,000.

Justice Archana Puri said, "considering the deceased to be a brilliant student, studying in 3rd class, at the relevant time and also considering the devaluation of rupee, in the modest estimate, the notional earnings of the deceased child can conveniently be taken to be Rs.30,000/- per annum."

The appeal was filed by the mother of a deceased child, questioning the adequacy of the compensation granted by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, on account of the death of Rekha, a 9-year-old child, in a motor vehicular accident, which took place in 2007.

The Tribunal considering that the deceased was 9 years old at the time of the accident, granted the lumpsum amount of Rs 1.5 lakhs along with Rs.20,000 for 'transportation and last rites'.

After hearing the submissions, the Court  noted that it has been submitted on affidavit, that Rekha "had been very brilliant student and she was studying in 3rd class, at the relevant time."

Reliance was placed on Kishan Gopal and another v/s Lala and others, [2013], wherein while considering the death of a child, aged 10 years, the notional income of the deceased was taken as Rs.30,000/- and after application of multiplier of '15' and the compensation was worked upon as Rs.4,50,000/-. Besides the same, a sum of Rs.50,000/- was granted towards love, affection, funeral expenses and last rites. The accident in the case under consideration occurred in 1992.

Furthermore, the Court referred to the Supreme Court in the case of 'Kurvan Ansari alias Kurvan Ali and another v/s Shyam Kishore Murmu and another, [2022], while considering the case of death of 7 year child, in a motor vehicular accident and also while making specific observation about the government not paying any heed to amend Schedule- II, the Court took the notional income of the deceased child as Rs.25,000 per annum and applied multiplier of '15' as prescribed in Schedule-II and worked upon the amount as Rs.3,75000, towards the loss of dependency. Besides the same, Rs.40,000 each was given to the claimants, who were two in number, towards filial consortium and Rs.15,000 was given towards funeral expenses. The total compensation was worked upon as Rs.4,70,000.

Justice Puri said, as per National Insurance Company Limited vs. Pranay Sethi and others, 2017(4) RCR (Civil) 1009, the compensation ought to be paid, on the count of 'loss of consortium', 'loss of estate' and 'funeral expenses'. As per 'Magma General Insurance Company Limited vs. Nanu Ram @ Chuhru Ram and others, 2018 (18) SCC 130', whosoever are the dependents of the deceased/claimants, are entitled to 'parental', 'spousal' or 'filial' consortium, as required.

In light of the above, the Court granted the enhanced compensation of Rs.5,34,700, after the deduction of compensation awarded by the Tribunal.

The appellant-claimant shall be entitled to the interest, at the rate of 6% per annum, from the date of filing of the present appeal, till realization of the enhanced amount of compensation, the Court added while disposing of the plea.

Mr.Chand Ram Olla, Advocate for the appellant.

Mr.Amit Kaith, Advocate for respondent No.1.

Case: Shanti Devi @ Sham Kala v. Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation and another

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (PH) 223

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